From Nothing to Everything

Know where you come from.

That is one of the essential themes in this memoir by Gabriel Kengni, who was born in 1962 to a polygamous family in West Cameroon at the junction of western and central Africa.

At the age of four, his family members started passing him around, and he began working at age seven. Everyone expected him to stop going to school because there was no money to pay tuition, but he continued on.

Everything changed after he passed an exam that paved the way for him to go to a public high school. After graduating, he attended college in the neighboring country of Gabon before moving to the United States of America to continue his education.

In sharing his story, he reveals what it was like growing up in a polygamous family, how the Bamiléké people in Cameroon select their kings, and how he took care of himself and his younger brother while still in elementary school.